My baby is getting frequent ear infections. is there any way to help prevent them?

Yes: Frequent ear infections are not only frustrating but can potentially affect language development. Breastfeeding, decreasing pacifier use, and giving your child the pneumococcal vaccine can all help prevent ear infections. Kids under 2 years old who have more than 3 ear infections in 6 months or more than 4 in 12 months may need to see an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Yes: Make sure that you are avoiding any smoke exposure as this is a risk factor for ear infections. Also, babies who drink milk laying down rather than upright may be at higher risk. Prolonged pacifier use may be linked to ear infections. And lastly, daycare attendance or exposure to many other sick children with upper respiratory infections in the first couple of years of life may increase the risk.

Yes: Avoiding risk factors for ear infections can decrease the number of infections. Risk factors that increase the likelihood of getting an ear infection include: exposure to smoke (or other irritant particles in the air), attending a group daycare (catching colds and flus can lead to ear infections), and bottle feeding (breastfeeding lowers the chance of getting an ear infection).

Prevent Ear Infect: Ask your child's pediatrician or family doctor, if it's time to see an ear nose and throat surgeon. Ear tubes prevent most ear symptoms. They don't prevent the colds that cause ear infections, but they eliminate most of the symptoms of ear infections -- pain and irritability.

Stop Ear Infections: Two answers: stop getting a stuffy nose and growing up. Most ear infections follow an event that contributes to stuffy nose, such as a cold or exposure to an irritant, like smoke or reflux of stomach acid. By far any away, the biggest issue with ear infections is day care, with exposure to other children with head colds. Ear infection symptoms generally stop after insertion of ear tubes.

Many ways: Avoid risk factors that increase the risk of ear infections. Avoid exposure to cigarette smoking, avoid feeding the baby while in a laying down position, avoid situations that may lead to more colds if possible (daycare attendance ). It helps to give breastmilk which helps strengthen the immune system. Frequent infections can delay speech. Ear tubes placed by a specialist may help if too frequent.